Having inherited a large sum of money, Jean Paget, a secretary who worked in Malaya during the Second World War, meets with her solicitor to discuss the building of a well for the village where she and several expatriate women and children ended their long ordeal after they were captured by the Japanese.
In Malaya, Jean is greeted warmly, and joins in the celebrations as water springs into a trough from the newly dug well. Prompted by a villager, who asks whether Jean might marry, Jean recalls events in Kuala Lumpur in 1942.
With Japanese troops advancing, Jean's boss Mr Holland tells his staff to leave the office and get on trains evacuating them to Singapore. Jean sets off but, after answering the phone, ends up helping Mrs Holland with her three young children, Ben, Jane and baby Robin. Mr Holland arrives home and they set out, but his car breaks down. They are picked up by a British patrol and taken, along with 35 others, to a port. However, a Japanese patrol lands and takes them as prisoners - separating the men, who are taken to a camp.
The Japanese officer orders the women and children to walk 50 miles back to Kuala Lumpur. They are assigned a Japanese sergeant to escort them and begin their long trek, only to be ordered to reroute at each place they turn up. Food, water and medical supplies are scarce, and the heat and exhaustion begin to take their toll. Mrs Holland is the first to die, but not before she asks Jean to look after her children. From this point, Jean, who appears far more integrated in the Malayan way of life, assumes more control over group affairs and barters shoes for food and medicines. She also wears a sarong donated by the trader's sympathetic wife.
The monotonous trek across Malaya leads to an encounter with two Australian soldiers (also prisoners of the Japanese), fixing a truck. Jean strikes up a rapport with Joe, who manages to trade some medicines for stolen petrol. The two of them grab some moments together. Jean returns to her hut and dreamily tells Mrs Frith how Joe spoke of a town called Alice.
Some respite occurs when the group comes across a deserted house with running water and some basic beds. Having told Jean that the women must march 200 miles to a prison camp, a Japanese officer tries to entice her away but she refuses. However, Ellen, a young woman, is tempted to go off with the Japanese soldiers.
The next day a snake gives young Freddie a fatal bite, and the Japanese sergeant shares in the group's grief. He also shows compassion, giving the women some of his water when illness and exhaustion force them to stop in a humid jungle swamp. However, the gesture is too late to save Ebbey, one of the women, and three children including Jane.
Once again the women cross the paths with the Australians, and Jean secures another rendezvous with Joe. He steals chickens from Japanese Captain Sugaya and gives them to the women. When Joe admits to his crime, the women and the Australian soldiers are made to watch as he is crucified on a tree. The women are told to leave and it is assumed that Joe will die. However, unbeknownst to the women, Captain Sugaya grants Joe his final request and permits him to be taken down alive.
Meanwhile, Jean's heart has hardened against all Japanese, but she regains her compassion and sense of humanity when the Japanese sergeant gets a fever and dies.
She then negotiates with the elders of a village that her group of women might live and work there. At the end of the war Jean reflects on the sense of loss caused by returning Robin, the baby she has cared for, back to his father.
In Malaya, she learns that Joe did not die, and she sets out to Australia to find him. Coincidentally, Joe has left for London to trace her. The two are finally reunited in an emotional embrace when Jean greets him on his return to Alice Springs.
